And the top 10, worth £420billion and all over 60, coul­d ride for free. But it is time the rich stopped getting a free ride from governments, said the charity’s study, aimed at the World Economic Forum of politicians and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland this week.

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim - $77.1bn (Photo: Getty)

The super-rich got richer by half a trillion dollars last year. But since 2010 the poorest half of the world got poorer by $1trillion (£700billion), a drop of 41%. And an estimated £7.6trillion is stored in offshore accounts to avoid taxes, says Oxfam.

It also says nine corporate ­partners at Davos use tax havens, costing developing nations £70billion a year in lost revenue.

U.S. billionaire investor Warren Buffett - $72.7bn (Photo: Reuters)

Mr Goldring added: “World leaders’ concern about the ­escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action. In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night, we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake.

“Tackling the secrecy of the UK’s network of tax havens would be a big step towards ending extreme inequality.”

Equality Trust director Duncan Exley added: “Inequality, both globally but also in the UK, is now at staggering levels. We know that such a vast gap between the richest and the rest of us is bad for our economy and society.

“We now need our politicians to wake up and address this dangerous concentration of wealth and power.”